Saturday sail

Friday was too windy, but Saturday looked like it was shaping up nicely. I got out in about 8 knot winds, way over by Witty's Lagoon. I noticed that the tide was sweeping me toward Race Rocks quite swiftly, and the wind was getting a little iffy, so I headed back. Three cruise ships came along at the same time. This one threw up some fierce waves, and then the wind, which was supposed to have built nicely to 15 knots, quit. So I motored home.

It happened that David Bowie's Cat People (Putting Out Fire) was on my sound system. It wasn't intentional, honest!  :-)

Almost forgot to say that the jib telltales are working much better:

I made a little button and button hole with some whipping thread and a dowel, to capture the jib downhaul so the telltales don't get caught in it, just forward of the bottom telltale.

Why I didn't go out on Friday

In a word: WIND!

Kite and sailboarders had a great time.

Race to Alaska

The qualifying first leg has been completed, and most of the boats have made it in. (I don't have any info on the strictly person-powered boats.) The wind was SW around 18 knots against a fairly strong ebb tide. The people I talked to said it was wet and cold. The first boat, Team Golden Oldies in their 38′ Crowther super Shockwave, arrived around 8:45am. Oops! I just found the results page; they arrived at 9:18. The Victoria Team Mau for whom John built a pedal drive came in 6th—good show!

Here's what Dirk Visser said about the Strait on the SCA blog:

"The 40 miles from PT to Victoria can be nothing but a rippled millpond, or possibly the sternest test you have ever faced as a mariner. Any local waterman will confirm: 'It's big water'.
Back in the day, planning a run to Neah Bay or La Push we used to just say to each other with a shrug of the shoulders, 'the Straits can always be rough!'.
It's that insane dirty dancing of wind and tide that makes you wish the band would just go home. On one ocassion I can remember the relief of just getting out to the open, unprotected, Pacific Ocean!"

Here's my only good photo of the fleet in the Inner Harbour on Friday afternoon.

I don't know what team this boat above is, but I know I've seen it written about. It has tandem sliding seat rowing units; one person per oar, it looks like. Many of the multihulls had a similar set-up, with a sliding seat on each outer hull. I enjoyed that it has twin daggerboards, just like my boat does! They're flat on the outside and foiled on the inner side, in rectangular (why not shaped?) boxes. All high-tech hardware and rigging, including a carbon fibre bowsprit.

Here's the Race to Alaska web site. They start the main course Sunday at noon.

Back to Firefly

I finally got the new rudder blade finished! I installed it yesterday. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in the experience I forgot to take photos (what else is new?). Suffice to say one would have great trouble distinguishing it from the old blade in a casual viewing. The downhaul arrangement is different, though: I fabricated and attached a stop so that the blade can only go so far around when it's down. This will mean much better performance, and hopefully fewer or no vibrations from the engine (too long a story to go into here).

Now, to get out there and try it out!

Um... what happened to all that great wind we were having??

next rudder - pointy edge

The NACA foil formula results in a foil with a blunt edge instead of a point, so that the point can be made of something that's not wood (i.e., whatever resin one is using). That way there's less chance of the edge breaking, and water getting into the wood. Here's how I did it (John's idea):

Clamped a straight-edge to one side of the trailing edge of the foil, and filled in the triangle with resin thickened with chopped strand and cab-o-sil. Put packing tape on the straight-edge for easy release, as resin doesn't stick to it.

After the triangle is hard, the fibreglass goes on and overlaps the resin. Then one has a blade with a pointed glass trailing edge that the water will just slide off of:

The rudder is almost done. (I think I said that before.) The top groove is glassed, and the blade is glassed. Just need to (wait until Monday for the shop to be open and) glass the upper part, drill the pivot hole, attach the lines, and put the rudder back together again.

Didn't quite know how to treat the change from the point to the rounded after edge. It'll be whatever it comes out as. Notice that I've drilled and filled a large hole for the pivot bolt, so the final bolt hole will be isolated from the wood.

Rugged

I found this area rug in the garbage. It was quite new, and the backing is really grippy, so I kept it, thinking it might be useful on the boat. Today I cut it up and installed it. It happened to just cover the floor and seats.

It's polypropylene, so presumably won't take long to dry out if wet.

I really wanted something for the cockpit floorboard, since I didn't put any non-skid on it and it is slippery when wet. Safety first!—I'd hate to have an emergency because I slipped on my own floor! I was thinking more of some kind of thick rubber floor stuff like those interlocking squares you can get. I'll see how this stuff goes. If it's not right I'll just return it to the garbage. :-)

After I put the piece down on the floorboard, I sat on the bench and pushed sideways as hard as I could with my feet to try and make it move, and it wouldn't slip a millimeter, so presumably it'll do. It'll certainly be better on bare feet in the summer than non-skid grit!

Not sailing just now 'cause the rudder is off. The new blade is close to being finished and is looking really good. If I get the urge I can always re-install the old rudder setup and go sailing...

Boom tent

Here's the frame I made for the boom tent:

Here's a closer look at the after end:

From inside the tent:

That little bit of line going over the boom near its after end is what the topping lift clips to, and it serves as well to contain the pvc pipe, which might otherwise be flopping about back there. The topping lift obviously has to come off so that the tent can go on.

Tent on:

Sunday sail

Had a great Sunday sail. Wind was a steady 10-13 knots from SSW. (You may want to turn your sound volume down for the video.)

In the video you may be able to see the telltales I put on the jib. They're good, but were getting caught by the jib downhaul line, so not always available. Notice also the Canadian ensign on the mizzen, eh?

The boat seems to sail better on her side like this. At least there's less slapping on the windward side; and the motion feels better. I prefer to steer from the leeward side, but sometimes in a gust I feel like I need to jump up to windward, and then when I do it over-compensates. Maybe I need to just stay put, ride it out, and see how far over she goes.

I got all the way over to Albert Head for the first time. It seemed like a long way, but then the return downwind trip was pretty short.

According to the track log, it's only about three miles across. Maybe when I've done it a few times it won't feel so far away.

 

The video above also shows the mainsheet cam cleat I was talking about in the last entry plus one, but here's a photo of it:

You can maybe see why it had to go where it is.